An application programming interface (API) lifecycle is usually driven by an API provider (who may be responding to consumer requests). APIs may exist in various versions and software lifecycle states within a system landscape and are frequently developed like any software by API developers (including those of API consumers) using an integrated development environment (IDE). After a successful test within an IDE, a particular API is usually deployed in a test/quality landscape for further tests (e.g., integration tests). After successful further tests, the API is deployed in a productive landscape. These states (e.g., development version, test/quality version, and productive version) are typically managed by the API provider.
Current API management systems are usually restricted to basic API information to manage APIs. IDEs usually integrate only with an API provider but not to the API management system—meaning that API lifecycle information (e.g., from development to productive usage and finally to deprecation) is available in the IDE and from the API provider, but not available to the API management system. Without IDE integration to the API management system, information useful for API management purposes is unavailable (e.g., details on a new API version or a deprecation of the API, API documentation, test data for the API, etc.), which results in inefficient and more costly API management.